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‘No need to panic, sufficient reserves of food and medicines’: Amit Shah
Amit Shah said that the country had presented an example to the world by following decisions taken by the Narendra Modi government to contain coronavirus.
Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday assured there will be no shortage of essential items including food and medicine during the 19 days of extended national lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi a few hours ago. The home minister also lauded the coordination between the states and the Centre over the implementation of measures to contain coronavirus disease.
Shah’s assurance follows an acknowledgement by the prime minister of the challenges faced in maintaining a smooth supply of essential items. PM Modi, too, during his televised address on Tuesday morning, had extended an assurance that the bottlenecks in the supply chain of essential items were being cleared gradually.
Prime Minister Modi had also added that there was no dearth of essential items including food material. Shah also reiterated the point while advising residents not to panic.
“Sufficient reserves of food, medicines and other daily essentials in the country, no need for any citizen to panic,” Shah’s statement released by PIB said.
Shah’s ministry is coordinating the response to Covid-19 through the disaster management act, which has been invoked to deal with this global pandemic. Shah said the coordination between the states and the Centre was praiseworthy.
“Commendable coordination seen between Centre and States to fight COVID-19,” Shah said adding that it needed to be intensified so that all citizens follow the lockdown properly and no one faces any problem to access things of their everyday needs.
The PM earlier today said there was near unanimity among the states over the extension of the lockdown and as many as eight states had independently announced an extension to the restrictions till April 30, even before the centre made the decision on the matter.
Shah also said that the decision to extend the national lockdown till May 3 was taken to protect the lives of people threatened by the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic.
Prime Minister Modi, too, had emphasized on the need to protect people’s lives when he first announced the national lockdown on March 23. A few days ago, he said the motto of the government had progressed over the two weeks of lockdown to ‘Jaan bhi, Jahaan bhi’ meaning the need to protect both lives and livelihoods.
The country is suffering a huge economic setback due to disruption of business activities and the daily wagers who are employed in the unorganized sector or in the construction and manufacturing sector are said to be the hardest hit.
The Prime Minister earlier today, said that alleviating the suffering of the poor, the labourers and the farmers was his government’s top priority. He added that the new guidelines to enforce the lockdown to be released tomorrow have taken utmost care of their interests. The government had earlier released a 1.71 lakh crore relief package for industries, businesses, salaried class and the poor people including the daily wagers.
Shah also lauded the people for their cooperation and claimed that the Indian citizens, under the leadership of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have set an example for the whole world when it came to a united response to the disease.
